POLICE OFFICER HELD IN FATAL DUI COLLISION

Two off-duty law-enforcement officers were involved in one of the
first deadly crashes of the year involving drunken driving just three
hours after stricter DUI laws went into effect.

A 29-year-old Bellevue police officer was arrested on suspicion of
vehicular homicide after his car cross the median and collided with an
oncoming sport-utility vehicle on Coal Creek Parkway Southeast in
Bellevue at 3:15 a.m. New Year's Day.

Killed at the scene was Brian H. Grooms, 26, of Columbus, Ohio, a
passenger in the back seat of the sedan driven by the officer.

Sitting in the front passenger seat of the sedan was Jeremy Reid, a
26-year-old off-duty state trooper from Federal Way.

Reid suffered head and chest injuries and was listed in serious
condition last night in the intensive-care unit at Harborview Medical
Center.

The accident occurred on the one night of the year when the
law-enforcement community is particularly vigilant about cracking down
on drunken drivers. The stroke of midnight also triggered tough new
laws that lowered the legal blood-alcohol limit to 0.08 percent and
increased penalties for violators.

Bellevue police spokesman Mike Johnson said it's discouraging that a
police officer would be suspected of driving drunk because police
agencies are campaigning for a new awareness of DUI laws and penalties.

"It certainly won't make us look very good," Johnson said. "However,
this officer was off duty. . . . He makes his own decisions and in
this case it seems pretty obvious he didn't make good decisions."

Bellevue police said initial tests showed that both drivers in the
collision had illegally high levels of alcohol in their blood.

Johnson did not specify the Bellevue officer's alcohol level except to
say, "He had been drinking . . . preliminary indications are he was
over the legal limit."

The police officer, whose name was withheld by investigators pending
the filing of charges, was in satisfactory condition yesterday at
Harborview Medical Center with injuries to his chest and heart.

He has been placed under arrest on suspicion of vehicular homicide and
could face charges early next week, according to a statement from the
Bellevue Police Department. He has been a Bellevue police officer
since March 1996.

The second driver, a Bellevue man, 45, also was arrested on suspicion
of drunken driving. He was released but may be charged pending further
investigation, police said.

Grooms, the man who was killed, was on vacation visiting a childhood
friend from Ohio, said Samuel Grooms, his cousin. He grew up in
Washington Court House, Ohio, a farming town about 40 miles southwest
of Columbus.

Grooms, known as "Red" because of his red hair, was engaged to be
married.

Reid is originally from the Columbus, Ohio, area and had served some
time in the Army, said State Patrol spokesman Capt. Eric Robertson. He
had moved to Washington state for the trooper job that he has held for
2 1/2 years. He is assigned to the Tacoma office, where he patrols
Interstate 5.

At Harborview, state troopers, Robertson and Assistant Chief Robert
Leichner arrived to show their support for Reid.

At a news conference last night, Robertson said he did not know if all
three men knew each other, or what they had been doing before the accident.

He declined to comment on the irony of having off-duty law-enforcement
officers involved in a major drunken-driving accident on New Year's

Day.

"Our No. 1 concern right now is Jeremy's well-being," he
said.

The Bellevue Police Department is the lead investigative agency, but
the State Patrol is also participating. Robertson expressed confidence
that Bellevue police could objectively investigate an accident
involving one of its employees.

Witnesses told police that the Dodge Stratus driven by the Bellevue
officer was traveling south at a high speed on the four-lane road and
spun out of control, crossing into oncoming traffic, where it collided
with a Ford Expedition.

Evidence at the scene, including skid marks and the position of
wreckage, corroborates that account, said Johnson, the police spokesman.

The driver of the Expedition was not injured, but his 53-year-old wife
was reported in stable condition last night at Overlake Hospital with
leg and neck injuries.

A back-seat passenger, a 78-year-old man from Newport, Pend Oreille
County, was not injured, police said.

Law-enforcement and government officials statewide had just kicked off
an anti-drunken-driving campaign to coincide with the start of new
laws that lower the legal blood-alcohol limit to 0.08 percent and
increase penalties for violators.

The Bellevue officer will remain in custody at least until he is
released from Harborview, police said. In addition to the possibility
of felony charges, the officer has been suspended with pay pending "an
administrative review that's done to determine the future status of
his employment," Johnson said.

In a prepared statement, the department expressed its condolences: "We
deeply regret this incident and the involvement of one of our officers
who is suspected of driving his vehicle while under the influence of
alcohol which has resulted in the loss of life. We are committed to
conducting this investigation in a fair and impartial manner to ensure
that all parties are treated consistently with the ethical standards
of this department."

John Moffat, director of the Washington Traffic Safety Commission,
which is coordinating the statewide anti-DUI campaign, stopped by the
accident scene, about a half-mile from his home.

"Its very sad to see this thing with anybody . . . and very, very sad
that a police officer is involved," said Moffat, who was a Seattle
police officer for 25 years.

"What it gets down to is that everybody thinks the drunk driver is
somebody else," Moffat said. "The challenge is to get people to
recognize that this is something that can happen to you."

As a 29-year-old male, the police officer in the wreck is "right in
the classic age group of what we see with drunk drivers," Moffat said.